Month: July 2016

Let’s keep the hits going with our Ranger Archetype-the Giant Hunter!

Giant Hunter

You enjoy a challenge to the point you actively hunt those that could crush you in on hand. You stalk the darkness finding your pray and putting them down. Be it for the thrill of the hunt or to protect your people, you truly stalk the most dangerous game

Fell the Giant

At 3rd level, you gain the ability to hurt those that are larger than you. For each size category that a creature is larger than you, increase the damage dealt to the target by 1d6. You may only deal this extra damage once per turn.

Hard to Hunt the Hunter

At 7th level, it is extremely hard to find you when you don’t want to be found. You gain expertise as a rogue in Dexterity(stealth).

Full Barrage

At 11th level, when you make more than one attack against a target in a round and the first attack hits, the second attack deals an extra 2d10 damage to the target.

Stand Toe to Face

At 15th level, when a target larger than you makes an attack or uses an ability against you, you gain a +1 bonus to your AC and saves against that attack or ability for each difference in size between you and the target. As an example a small creature would have a +2 bonus to AC and saves against a large creature.

Here is my giant killer Paladin’s Sacred Oath for DnD 5e. Let’s follow a lesser known medieval hero who dominated a giant just to carry his gear!

Path of Astolfo

The Path of Astolfo is an oath taken by some of the knights long ago who followed a leader known as Charlemagne. Their leader and his knights are lost to the ages, but few find his name and fewer take up his mantel. A defender of the weak and an especial protector of those locked under magical manipulation, Astolfo was rescued by magic and understands that magic in all its forms might not necessarily be evil. Known for his dominated giant foot servant and his golden lance, Astolfo was a traveler who went to the moons and back to save his friend then become a defender of an entire city. Those who follow his path wander the countryside attempting to help all those they find, even using magic to coerce those who might be irredeemable to become righteous.

Oath Spells

You gain oath spells at the paladin levels listed.

Level

Spells

3rd

Shield of faith, sanctuary

5th

lesser restoration, suggestion

9th

remove curse, dispel magic

13th

dominate beast, guardian of faith

17th

dominate person, greater restoration

Channel Divinity

When you take this oath at 3rd level, you gain the following two Channel Divinity options.

Horn of Charm: As an action, you blow a magic horn causing its song to bend the will of even the most hardened creatures. At 3rd level this action acts as if you cast charm person using your spell save DC as the DC for this effect. At 7th level, the effect of the horn can be as if you cast dominate beast. At 10the level the effect of the horn can be as if you cast dominate person. Finally at level 15, the effect of the horn can be as if you cast dominate monster.

Golden Lance. As an action, you present your weapon and speak a prayer asking for the force of your forebearers. For one minute or until you are knocked unconscious, your weapon glows with a golden radiance. When a creature is struck with your weapon as part of an attack, the target must make a Strength saving throw (DC equal to your spell save DC). On a failure, the target is knocked prone.

Mount of the Master

Starting at 7th level, you gain a nightmare mount. Its AC is equal to your AC and has hit points equal to a half your hit points. As an action you can have it make one attack, but can use your move action to command the creature to move as normal. It loses the Ethereal Stride ability, but does not make hoof prints to be tracked.

At 18th level, the nightmare gains a flight speed equal to its land speed.

Resistance of the Leader

Beginning at 15th level, you gain advantage on all saving throws against spells.

Bulwark of Paris

At 20th level, as an action, you can follow your master and become a true defender of the people. For the next minute, increase your AC and saves by 3. In addition, all allies within 30 feet also gain these benefits. These benefits last for the duration, you voluntarily end it, or until you are knocked unconscious.

Once you use this feature, you can’t use it again until you finish a long rest.

Basics- COMRADE! Scythe is a board game of nation rebuilding and development following an alternative World War I. Players take the roles of different nations attempting to become the most successful nation after the fall. Each player is given two player boards to start the game. One board is your nation, describing your nation’s special power and unlockable powers you get when you build mechs-giant walking war machines that provide you with extra powers when you build them.

The second board each player receives is an action selection board. Here is where you get more variety from the game. Each board has a specific type of focus associated with it. These focuses range from industrial to manufacturing, and the focus of your nation will drastically change how you play. The second player board also has the actions you will take each turn, but divides the board into top action and bottom actions. These actions are simple to read as actions with an icon in red being a cost, while icons in green are the resources they provide. This allows for language-independent play. Top actions typically get you resources to spend while bottom actions are where you spend resources to build your nation. The top actions are bolster (get points/cards for combat), produce (get resources depending on the tiles you are on), move (move your pieces/earn money), or trade (get two resources or get popularity). The bottom actions are upgrade, deploy, build structures, or enlist. These actions require a bit more description. The action board has a number of spots filled in with squares. When you spend the upgrade resources, you move one cube from the top (revealing a new option when you take that action) and cover up a bottom cost (making that action that much easier in the future). Deploy is how you place mechs on the field. Each mech you deploy unlocks new powers for your character as well as all other mechs such as moving across rivers or having bonuses to combat. Build allows you to move a structure from your board to the main game board. Once removed from your board, the space uncovered unlocks new options on your turn like allowing you to move across the board or harvest extra resources. The final action, enlist, allows you to get extra materials off-turn when opponents to your right and left take bottom row actions.

With the basics, the game starts off with you having two workers on the main game board next to your base and your character mini on your home base. Players then take actions as described above. A player selects an action space, then takes the top action, if he/she wants to, of that spaces and then takes the bottom action, if he/she wants to, of the same space. What makes this interesting is the next time a player selects an action, that player cannot take that same action space!

Two of the things I mentioned above are combat cards/points and popularity. Popularity is used in scoring at the end of the game. Popularity measures how well the common man thinks of you. Depending on your popularity, you receive more points at the end of the game for each area you control, each thing you accomplish, and how many resources you control. Lower popularity means you earn fewer points, so this is an extremely important number! Combat is also a simple and fast. When you move a mech or a character onto a space of another player, combat might happen. If there are only workers on that space, those workers flee back to their home base and you lose one popularity. If a mech or a character is on that space, then combat happens after the move action. Each player selects how much combat power they want to spend on the fight, from 0 to seven, and may select one combat card to add to the fight. Combat cards range from one to five. Each side selects what they will spend, (power is spent regardless of whether they win or lose), and reveal to their opponent. The loser moves back to their home base, the winner gets the tile and all the delicious resources on the tile.

There are a few other minor things as well. Your character can have encounters which are random cards that describe fun, extra events in the game such as finding a herd of cows that you can kill, buy, or steal causing you to lose or gain resources in the game. Your character can also move to the center tile of the game and encounter the factory, an old relic of the last war. The factory has a deck of cards that provide you with an extra action you can take with new exciting options like double moves and bonus resources. The final thing of note is your goal. Every player starts the game with two goal cards. Goal cards state an action you must have accomplished on your turn for you to unlock a bonus way to score in the game.

This game follows a very similar end game mechanic to Euphoria-each player has six stars. When a player completes a goal such as deploying all his/her mechs or winning a combat, that player places a star on the board in that spot. When a player places his/her last star, the game is instantly over. At this point, every player scores points based popularity and tiles they control, stars placed, and each pair of resources as well as the extra structure bonus tile. The player with the most money/points at the end of the game wins!

Mechanics– I liked this game’s mechanics, but I didn’t love this games mechanics. I had fun and built an empire, but I don’t think it’s much of a combat game. Your actions are quick and easy to do, but the concept of fighting feels slightly added on. Overall, the game is sleek and works well, but it feels like a cog missing one tooth-the machine hums along well, but every once in awhile, you get a bit of a clunk. However, the two pieces of the player’s boards do make for an awesome mix as you get vastly different empires attempting vastly different strategies with warlike nations having to focus on farming while peaceful nations might end up with a manufacturing center. That variety really makes the game fun. Also the indents in the board make all the actions that much more fun. I love the upgrade action so much as I can see and even feel my nation getting better! I have my minor gripes, but it is a fun game. 4.5/5

Theme-Much like the mechanics, I liked this part of the game, but didn’t love this part of the game. Combat sticks for me. We’re post-world war, but the fighting feels simple. That is good as you resolve combat quickly, but it also means that combat doesn’t have much depth. I do feel like I’m building and reclaiming pieces of after a war. The instructions build on the nation’s providing each with their own background, story, and life. I do feel like each nation when I play and the differences in player boards emphasise the theme each nation is taking. 4.5/5

Instructions-This game has a ton of instructions, but they do a good job explaining the game. The rules are not complex with the bulk being chose action, maybe do top action, and maybe do bottom action. The thickness of the rulebook is to build story (awesome) and to clarify all the working pieces. I like what I see here. It does have a few things I’d like clarified like how the submerge powers work, but overall it’s a well done and well laid out rule book that you can learn on the fly, if maybe a tad too long. 4.8/5

Execution– HOLY COW! Stonemaier games is known for their parts, and it shows in this one! Players get nice wooden pieces, the resources are all beautiful, even in the more simple price ranges, and the mechs/characters all look beautiful and different. The details go so far as the worker meeples all have different hats. It’s just a little detail, but it’s a beautiful one that really shows how much the creators loved this game. I have an unboxing video showing all the pieces of the game here https://youtu.be/3g9vUQYz-pY . 5/5

Summary-This is an interesting one for me. I like this game, a lot actually, but I don’t think this is my new favorite. The mechanics are sleek, the gameplay is fast yet deep, and the execution is amazing. If have a few issues with the theme and mechanics, mostly dealing with combat. I do feel like I’m building or maybe rebuilding an empire, but there are just a few things that feel a tiny bit off. These things don’t derail the game by any means, but it did take me out of the zone a bit. Also, this game’s experience might rely heavily on the player count. I have had more fun playing with five players than I did in a head to head match. This might not be the game I ask to bring to the table, but if someone asked if I wanted to play again, I would be happy to any time! 95%

The power of life courses through your veins, and you share this gift with those you can. Gain the following:

Increase your Charisma ability score by 1, to a maximum of 20.

Gain a +2 bonus to Charisma(persuasion) checks.

When you use an ability or spell that causes a target that isn’t you to regain hit points, you add your Charisma ability modifier to the amount regained. If this bonus was from a spell or an ability that is limited to a number of times per day, add as normal. If this ability functions as if the hit points come from a reserve of hit point you can use through out the day, you must use at least 1/5 of your total reserve for this bonus to function.

You conjure the healing power of the universe and cause the target of the spell to regain hit points equal to your spellcasting ability modifier at the start of its turn. You or the target may move after you cast this spell, but must remain within 50 feet of each other or the spell ends on that target. This spell has no effect on the dead, undead, or constructs.

At Higher Levels: When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you may target another creature for each slot level above 2nd.

I like Emphatic Healing (Street Grimore), but I’d also like an option where I don’t have to take damage. Let’s see if we can get some balance….

Lay On Hands

Cost: 1 PP Per Level

Activation: Simple Action

Channeling healing in the universe, you infuse the subject with healing power. To accomplish this, the adept makes a Magic +Willpower[levels in Lay On Hands currently active] test. For each hit, heal one box of damage. This damage is healed at the rate of 1 box per initiative pass. You must take a simple action each pass to sustain this power. If you end the power before reaching the total amount of healing available, the extra boxes are lost.

Subjects with lower Essence are harder to heal with this power. Apply a negative modifier equal to this subjects Essence loss (6- current Essence Rating, round down) to the dice pool for the initial check.

Thoughts? Should this be a complex action? Should it be per turn? What are your thoughts?

You care enough for others that you will die for them. You can’t allow another to suffer in your place, and choose to suffer in the place of others. You follow a spirit who cares about others, you, and the whole universe. Following this spirit can cause difficulties as you begin to care for even your enemies like they are your neighbors.

Advantages

All: +3 to assist attempts when you are not the lead on the check

Magician: +3 to all health spells used on others

Adept: gain Empathic Healing (Street Grimoire) as a bonus power

Disadvantages

A martyr is unable to kill unless he/she has to. When you attempt to deliver a killing blow to a person, you must make a successful Charisma+Willpower (3) test. On a failure, your attack misses. This is determined after damage is calculated.